


The Tools To Hand

by tielan



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Civil War (Marvel), Gen, Intervention, Maria Hill In Civil War, Maria Hill is a BAMF, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-04
Updated: 2015-07-04
Packaged: 2018-04-07 15:19:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4268253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is not how Steve imagined it ending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tools To Hand

**Author's Note:**

> Happy July 4th to my American friends! :)

This isn’t the ending Steve would have chosen.

Then again, he didn’t make the choice. That’s on Tony – Tony and his need to atone for everything, as though it’s always and only all about him.

“You’re sure about this?” Bucky asks, and Steve tenses at the question then makes himself relax. It’s not a challenge; it’s just Bucky checking on him.

“It’s not what I wanted, but it’s what we have.” He lifts the shield and his voice, making sure both sides can see him, hear him. “It ends now!”

Across the field, he sees Tony rise in the familiar scarlet armour, Rhodey’s blue and red _War Machine_ armor a duller foil against the sky. Beneath them stand the proponents of the Registration Act; those who would see superhumans regulated, regimented, _ruled_.

The hum behind Steve is Sam’s wings spreading wide; the click of safeties being unlocked are Natasha’s weapons. There’s a rustle of voices and breaths exhaled as two armies face each other across broad hills.

_It stops now._

The words breathe out across the battlefield-to-be, as though something echoed across the sky.

And then, like a hammer smashing into the earth, the sky lights up in a column of coruscating colour, reverberating sound, and unthinkable power.

 _Thor,_ Steve thinks with a pang of something rather closer to guilt than he likes. He’s done nothing wrong, and Thor has no right to judge his actions—

But when the light dies, the figure down on one knee in the pattern is too short to be Thor and too human to be Vision.

She stands up, dressed in the blue uniform she once wore as S.H.I.E.L.D, balanced on her bootheels. Every eye on the battlefield is upon her – and on the Hammer she lifts in her hand, still crawling with traceries of lightning as the wind whips up, tugging at the short, sweeping points of the hair that’s been clipped close to her jaw.

As she lifts Mjolnir above her head, lightning rips from the sky in a display never before controlled by a mortal. But then – Steve drags the thought out from somewhere between the cold spike of fear and the soft caress of awe – she’s never been quite in the common lot of mortals.

Her free hand lifts to her ear as the thunder rolls across the hills. Every earpiece crackles into life on a band once used at S.H.I.E.L.D, then at the Tower, and then at the Avengers Facility.

“Call it off,” Maria Hill tells them with an authority that’s infinitely familiar to Steve – and, doubtless, to Tony as well - albeit never before with the backing of lightning and thunder. “You’re better than this – all of you – and you know it. Put your weapons away, power off, and stand down. _This stops now._ ”

“By the decree of she who is worthy?” Stark’s drawl can’t quite hide his surprise.

“No, Stark,” she says. “At the request of one of the people you’re allegedly trying to protect.”

Steve looks across the battlefield, and although it’s too far to see and the facemask is in the way, he can imagine the expression on the other man’s face. He imagine it matches his own - a wince at the accuracy of her hit.

“Not pulling punches, Maria?”

“I’ll do whatever’s needed to protect Earth, Steve. The only question has ever been _how_. And right now, I have a Hammer, and two extremely stubborn nails.” She twirls Mjolnir around her wrist by the leather strap: casual as a woman swinging a handbag; deadly as a knife through the heart. “So, will I have to pound some sense into you two, or are you going to come and be civil?”

**Author's Note:**

> No, the movie would never resolve like this. Certainly not with Maria lifting the Hammer. But wouldn't it be fun if it did?


End file.
